Czech campaign raises €500,000 in 48 hours to buy Flamingo missile for Ukraine

A Czech fundraising drive has raised more than €500,000 in 48 hours to buy a Flamingo cruise missile for Ukraine, organisers said.

The campaign, run by the group “Gifts for Putin,” is one of several initiatives the organisation has launched to support Ukraine, from funding ammunition and drones to training pilots, preserving cultural heritage, and supplying evacuation ambulances. The latest appeal aims to finance a Ukrainian-made FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missile, which the organisers say will be christened DANA 1 in memory of co-founder and Czech nuclear physicist Dana Drábová, who recently died.

According to the manufacturer, Ukrainian defence start-up Fire Point, the FP-5 can travel about 3,000 km and carry a 1,150 kg payload. Iryna Terekh, Fire Point’s head of production, said the missile gives Ukraine an “asymmetric advantage” in the air at a time when manpower and resources are limited. Once purchased, the missile will be handed to the Ukrainian armed forces, who will decide when and on what target it is used, the organisers said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the Flamingo as one of Ukraine’s “most successful missiles,” and said mass production is expected to begin by the end of December or in January–February.

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, Ukraine has encouraged defence innovation and eased rules to let start-ups work directly with the military. The conflict has spurred hundreds of new defence ventures, from metallurgy and construction firms to IT companies, adapting civilian capabilities to produce weapons, ammunition and drones and rapidly iterating them in combat conditions.

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